Christa Vohs, digital marketing solutions director atMoving Targets in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, says Facebookhas given pizzerias many ways to reach their ideal demo-graphic through geographic targets. “In broad terms, youcan target your ads by address, ZIP code, state or coun-try, and from there you can use a custom radius with adistance of one to 50 miles outside of the address you’veselected,” she explains. “On a more granular level, youcan even exclude users in a certain area or ZIP code whoare within the radius you’ve selected.”In addition to location, Vohs notes, you can target adsby demographics (i.e., age or income), interests or behav-iors. You can get very specific, particularly on Facebook,where your ads get posted directly into users’ news feeds,and you can easily set parameters: what times of day torun the ad, for example, or the daily budget you prefer,Kincheloe says.

Fosberg adds that Facebook also allows for targeting peo-ple based on their personal “likes” or even their purchasebehavior—for example, anyone who buys meals at otherrestaurants. “Facebook has teamed with the largest datacompilers,” he says. “Anything you buy on your credit ordebit card, Facebook marketers have access to. So you geta much higher ROI on your marketing dollars, becauseyou’re not marketing to the masses, but to very specificpeople who are currently buying what you’re selling.”A similar location-based approach, called geofencing,even allows you to create a virtual boundary aroundyour pizzeria—for example, a one-mile radius or onecity block—and target any customers who are in thatgeofenced area while, for example, shopping at a nearbymall or visiting a museum. “;is type of advertising ismore useful for attracting customers who may not always

Getting On Google

Outside social media platforms, Google Ad Words offers another
geotargeting option. Google Ad Words can be used in two ways,
notes Nick Fosberg, owner of Bar Restaurant Success in Rockford,
Illinois. You can target a select group (for example, during football
season, you might target males for a pizza-and-wings package),
or target based on keywords like “pizza delivery.” “If you have a
great offer and grab someone’s attention, Google Ad Words can be
very profitable,” Fosberg says. “But an ad with a logo and image
isn’t going to do much. Even if they click on the ad, you have no
clue where your customers are coming from or if they’re spending
money with you.” Like with social media, make your offers trackable info-grabbers.

David Kincheloe, president of National Restaurant Consultants in
Golden, Colorado, notes that Google Ad Words is ideal for operators
who aren’t savvy about search engine optimization. But the cost
depends on how many keywords you include and the ad’s placement. “If a person is searching something like ‘pizza near me,’ your
ad pops up in the top two or three results or on the side of the
page, depending on how much you pay,” Kincheloe explains. “You
want to buy the words for anything you think your guest is going
to type into a Google search.”
However, Google Ad Words proves a bit more complicated than the
Facebook process, so you may need to get help from an expert.
“You might find a local service to test out some Google ads with
keywords or geotargeting,” Fosberg suggests. “Paying someone

$20 an hour is well worth it—with a few hours for setup, that $100
will go a long way, rather than wrapping your head around all this
technology stuff!”

“You can target your [location-based] ads
by address, ZIP code, state or country, and
from there you can use a custom radius with
a distance of one to 50 miles outside of the
address you’ve selected.”